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Friday, July 19, 2013

Submitted to kick off your 90-degree Friday evening: With the loveliest long, sturdy legs, and brown eyes both beguiling and inviting, Ann Miller heats up a swank Manhattan apartment in Kiss Me Kate.

Because it is, indeed, too darn hot to think of doing anything more tonight than logging on to Netflix. If you are blessed with AC, which thankfully, I am -- purchased during a July 4th weekend heat wave in 1999.

Prior to that, I'd go to the Olympia Theater on Broadway at 107th Street on nights like this, content to watch even the worst movie (Young Einstein, anyone?) in exchange for two blissful hours of AC.

The Olympia, established in 1914, was shuttered in December 2002 and demolished the following year to make room for a $56 million condo development. Where the theater was once flanked by a pet store to the north and an Italian restaurant and the most wonderful Italian sandwich shop to the south are now a Bank of America, a LensCrafters and a GameStop.

But it is much too hot to go much further with that narrative because it just gets me all agitated. Locals share the love for that old theater, which had seen better days long before its closure, at the CinemaTreasures website.

If you're headed to your local theater as we close in on what's expected to be the last night of this heat wave, check out Gawker's commentary on this week's new films and ask yourself, Is the cost of admission worth two hours of AC?

Me, I'm staying in. Netflix doesn't have Kiss Me Kate available for streaming, but recommends Kiss Me, about amorous stepsisters, or Kiss Them for Me, with Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield, or Katy Perry: Part of Me or El Beso Que Me Diste (The Kiss You Gave Me).